Abductive reasoning

Descartes used his Method of Doubt in order to find out what is the truth, in the sense that what he believes in is able to be confirmed without any probability of reasonable doubt. Within this method of pursuing the truth, Descartes doubts everything he encounters until he was able to feel content with knowing what could only be considered truthful without anything doubts. Eventually this doubt progressed to Descartes’ own existence. One thing Descartes pressured during his journey to finding…

Identity is the fact of being who a person is. Many make superior choices and resist bad ones. The attempt of choosing between decisions is difficult depending on what the results can be. Myriad of decisions include being able to overcome obstacles through journeys. For instance, adventurous men travel to try and accomplish their goal but end up in many bumps. The Odyssey conveys temptations the protagonist, Odysseus, has when he travels on an expedition trying to reach home. Ithaca, Odysseus'…

Our prior knowledge and mindset can define the way we approach new knowledge and experiences; we see what we believe, each letting our schemas have an affect on the conclusions that we draw from situations. Our perception of what occurs and the way we go about our motives are based off of a previous inclination or concept towards the situation we are preparing to encounter. This schema is useful in helping us organize and interpret information based off of our previous experiences or lessons,…

Every glare our eyes take, every move our bodies makes, every thought our mind thinks, every noise our mouth makes, it’s all controlled by us, but what if it wasn’t? What if we were only allowed to glare at certain things, move or act in a certain way, only think about certain things, and only say certain words? What would our lives be like this? People would be the same, even days would be the same, creativity would be lost, imagination wouldn’t exist, thoughts would no longer happen and we…

As people, we are often more inclined to listen to what people currently tell us. To live in the present based on what we observe. To overlook events from the past that hold many principles we are unaware of. In Michelle Cliff’s Abeng, these distinctions of the past versus the present are identified through Cliff’s use of varying repetition, sentence structure and writing style for each shift in time, depictions the past to be objective and true and the present to be affected by people’s…

“It won’t be this easy in college.” I believe every high school teacher has said something around those lines at least once to their students. While the statement is somewhat true, the idea can easily be debunked with the statement “It is only as hard as you make it to be.” My experience with English 1010 was that it indeed was challenging, but not hard. I stayed on top of my assignments and did my best on them so I wouldn’t feel the assignment was completed half-heartedly. I have efficiently…

The question, “Who are you?" characterizes Sophie as a critical thinker. When she finds the small letter addressed to her without a stamp in her mailbox she begins to wonder who she really is in a critical way. She wonders if her name and appearance matter in the question of who she really is. She realizes these questions are easy to think about but almost imposable to answer. Sophie begins her path to philosophical thinking. We see that Sophie is taking these questions seriously, she does not…

Most of us allow our emotions and life experiences guide us in how we perceive situations and come to conclusions on issues that arise in our life. We have come to assume that our thought process is accurate and since it is not flawed, our conclusions are right. We use this train of thought to defend our stance on matters and to choose a course of action when needed. I have done this many times and for the most part, felt comfortable with the decisions I have made. I believe in continuously…

Video Games Violence? Favorable or Damaging? Video games are a multi-billion dollar industry. Over years the sales just continue to increase substantially. Video games have accumulated over around 46 billion dollars in revenue throughout the years. Today trend in video games contains violence, which mass of people find entertaining. Video game violence has been a controversial topic throughout the past years. It is still an on-going boiling argument and is still discussed every day. Although…

According to Hacker and Sommers’ in “Constructing Reasonable Arguments”, taking a stand on a controversial topic, swaying the reader with evidence and analysis, and citing all sources used within an essay are the stepping-stones to produce a well manufactured argumentative essay. The main goal is to persuade the reader to choose the writer's side of the argument over the opposing side in an informative way. Arguments happen everywhere all the time, which means there is more than one way to look…